Peeking Snowman

I love snowmen. This one is peeking in the window of a cabin. My tutorial includes the materials I used, but feel free to change it up and use markers, crayons, or any other art material you want. Affiliate links below. 

Peeking Snowman

Materials: 

• watercolor paper
• Folk Art acrylic paint - Light Blue
• pencil
• Apple Barrel Paint Pens
• centering ruler

Steps: 

Cut the paper to the size and shape of the window you want. Use a wet brush to moisten the area where the sky goes, then brush a small amount of Light Blue paint horizontally onto the paper. Let the paint dry completely. 

Use a pencil to sketch the outline of the snowman. Use paint pens to color the snowman's hat, scarf, arms, eyes, nose, mouth, and buttons. Add trees - small ones in the background and a larger one in the foreground. I added shadows with the pencil. 

With a brown paint pen, make a window sill by coloring each edge of the paper. Use the centering ruler to mark the center of each edge. Draw a vertical and a horizontal line through those center points to finish the window.  

Standing Snowboarder Craft

Did you know that Colorado has named three official state sports? Colorado's state summer sport is pack burro racing (!) and its winter sports are skiing and snowboarding. This standing snowboarder craft may look familiar, as it's based on an Olympic snowboarding craft I did awhile back. I used the drawing I made last time as the template for this one, but I changed up some of the materials. I'm happier with this version. Affiliate links below. 

Standing Snowboarder Craft

Materials: 

• Bristol vellum paper 
• Ohuhu alcohol markers
• microtip scissors
• Mod Podge

Steps: 

Sketch a snowboarder and a snowboard onto a piece of Bristol vellum. Draw the arms and hands in any position you want, but make sure the feet are slanted slightly in the same direction. You can substitute a heavier weight paper, but don't go any lighter or your snowboarder might slump instead of standing. 

Color the snowboard and snowboarder with the alcohol markers, then cut out the pieces using microtip scissors. I'm not sure if my snowboarder customized his board to match his favorite scarf, or if he made the scarf to match his favorite board. 

Bend the feet upward so they are at a 90° angle to the rest of the body. Apply a thin coat of Mod Podge to the snowboard, then position the snowboarder onto the wet Mod Podge. When the Mod Podge dries, the board will be shiny and the snowboarder will be permanently connected to the board. 

 

I love how versatile Mod Podge is. And I'm really happy with my snowboarder. 

Standing Olympic Snowboarder Craft

Last week was a bobsled craft; this time it's a snowboarder! Mine is competing at the Olympics for Team USA. It stands up on its own, so you can pose it however you'd like. Affiliate links below. 

 

Standing Olympic Snowboarder Craft

Materials: 

• watercolor paper (do not substitute a lighter weight paper)
• Apple Barrel Paint Pens
• colored pencils
• microtip scissors
• Mod Podge

Steps: 

Sketch a snowboarder and a snowboard onto a piece of watercolor paper. You can draw the arms and hands in any position you want, but make sure the feet are slanted as shown below. 

Color the snowboard with paint pens. Use colored pencils to color the face and goggles of the snowboarder; use the paint pens for the rest.  

Cut out the snowboarder and board with the microtip scissors. Bend the feet upward so that they are at a 90° angle to the rest of the body. 

Apply a thin coat of Mod Podge to the snowboard, then position the snowboarder onto the wet Mod Podge. You may need to support the snowboarder while the Mod Podge dries. Mine stood just fine, but I propped it up against the bottle just in case. When the Mod Podge dries, the board will be shiny and the snowboarder will be permanently connected to their board. 

 

I had a lot of fun designing my snowboarder. What Olympic athlete should I do next? Maybe curling! Besides skiing and figure skating, it's the only other Winter Olympic sport I've tried.  

Cardboard Tube Bobsled

We have to wait two more years for the next Winter Olympics, but this is as good a time as any for crafts inspired by winter sports. I challenged myself to see if I could turn a cardboard tube into a bobsled. I modeled it (loosely) on the 2022 USA bobsled design. It was definitely a challenge. Affiliate links below. 

Cardboard Tube Bobsled

Materials: 

• cardboard tube (paper towel roll)
• scissors
• Supertite glue
• binder clip
• Folk Art acrylic paint (True Blue, Silver)
• 2.5" craft sticks
• blue pony beads
• star punch
• white cardstock
• flag sticker
• Apple Barrel white paint pen

Steps: 

Start by cutting out a triangle from one end of the cardboard tube. This is going to be the front of the bobsled. Overlap the two pieces so that they form a flat, narrow front. 

Glue this front portion closed, using a binder clip to hold it in place while the glue dries. I ended up also wrapping washi tape around the end to hold it snug while it dried. 

When the glue is dry, cut the tube to your desired length, then remove the portion where the passengers sit. 

Now it's time for painting. Use True Blue on the bobsled. Use Silver for the four runners. While you are waiting for the paint to dry, punch out white stars. When the paint is dry, glue one pony bead to each runner. Put the flag sticker on the front of the bobsled, then write USA with the paint pen. Glue the stars on each side of the bobsled. 

Finally, glue the runners to the bobsled. When the paint is dry, pick your crew. I went with Gandalf, Wyldstyle, Harry Potter, and Plain Blue with Red Hat from 1978. 

Harry can't see over the top. Good thing he's not steering.

I had a lot of fun making my bobsled. And obviously I had fun photographing it (other than the lack of light... all these rainy days are terrible for photos). I learned a lot about bobsleds, bobsledding, and bobsledders in the process. For example, I learned that bobsleigh and bobsled can be used interchangeably and the one that you use probably says something about where you live. I also learned more about the differences between bobsled, luge, and skeleton, as well as the Olympic history of the bobsleigh. And the history-making Tunisian bobsled team! Such a fun story. Makes me want to watch Cool Runnings again!

Recycled Cardboard Box Penguin

This penguin project is the seventh craft in my series based on crowd-sourced responses to ten questions. Can you guess what the question was? 

Here's a hint:

I asked, "Name something you recycle." I chose the answer of cardboard boxes as the inspiration for my craft. And, in fact, that specific box pictured above helped guide my thinking. When I saw 'made with less material' printed on it, I guessed (correctly!) that it would be easy enough to cut into shapes with scissors. Standard cardboard is best cut with a utility knife, which is great for straight edges, but not for cutting out small, circular items. I designed today's penguin to test how difficult it would be to cut rounded shapes from this thinner-than-usual corrugated cardboard.

The answer? Not difficult at all! In no time, I had cut out an oval body, circular eyes, a triangular beak, a pair of wings, a pair of feet, a hat, the hat's trim, and the hat's pom-pom.  

I painted all the pieces with acrylic paint and let them dry. Incidentally, I thought it was really interesting how this thinner cardboard reacted to the paint. Look at the slightly lumpy texture. That didn't change when the paint dried. 

Before using the hot glue gun to assemble everything, I started by figuring out what my base layer would be. It's not the body - the feet are tucked behind the body. If I glued the feet to the body and then the hat and facial features on top of the body, the finished project wouldn't lay flat. I would need to prop up the gaps caused by the thickness of the cardboard. 

So I cut a piece of cardboard (marked by the black arrow below) that was slightly narrower than the penguin's body and positioned it so that it left room for the feet yet extended beyond the head. I glued it in place, then cut a second rectangle (blue arrow) to fill the gap created between the base and the hat.  

 

Here's how my penguin looked after I glued the rest of the pieces in place.  

And here's how it looked after I glued it to a robe-sized gift box. I plan to tuck a gift tag under his wing. 

I love that I repurposed the cardboard box that the gift came in to decorate the gift box I used to wrap it! The recipient can use the box again, giving the cardboard box an even longer life. 

Fun with Math Puns: Making Winter Symme-trees

My favorite puns are the really intellectual ones, where you have to have specific, often esoteric knowledge to get the joke. I'm sure that I miss many of them completely as they go over my head, but that only makes the ones I do get all the more satisfying. It's like a little reward knowing that you're educated enough (in at least one specific area) to understand an intellectual pun. 

The first time I remember really appreciating a pun was around 1st or 2nd grade, when I discovered The King Who Rained (affiliate link here and below). I laughed out loud in our silent school library, checked out the book, and laughed about it every time I thought about it. I checked that book out at least a dozen times over the rest of my elementary school career. I was also a huge fan of Amelia Bedelia. We had a Japanese exchange student and her teacher stay with us when I was 8 and they LOVED those books. Getting the joke in a language you're learning must be even more satisfying than in your native language. 

Back in my teaching days, my students loved discovering a punny book in our class library that they hadn't previously understood. Like when we would first encounter circumference in the math book... one year, a student yelled, "Hey!" and ran giggling to the class library to pull out these books, super pleased with himself to finally get the joke. That totally made my day. It's an amazing feeling to see kids not only learning, but making a strong enough connection with material to understand a pun. 

I was thinking of those kids when I made these Symme-trees. Naturally, they go perfectly with a math lesson about symmetry. Wouldn't a whole bulletin board of them look great?

Winter Symme-trees

Materials:

• cardstock (2 sheets of light blue and 1 of white)
• scoring board
• acrylic paint (green, white, and brown)
• microtip scissors
• shadow grey ink
• craft glue
• foam tape
• mini snowflake punch

Steps:

Set aside one sheet of light blue cardstock. Cut the other sheet into six pieces, each approximately 4" x 6". Use the scoring board to make a fold line down the center of each. Add green paint to the right-hand side of each piece, vaguely forming the shape of half a tree. Start with a conversative amount of paint. You can add more, but can't remove it. 

Fold the paper along the scored line, pressing the paint onto the other side. Open up the paper; if you're happy with the tree, set it aside to dry and move on to the next one. If there wasn't enough paint, just add more on the right side and press again. 

Let all six trees dry completely. When they are dry, add horizontal swaths of white paint to mimic snow. Fold and press. Again, you can add more paint in it doesn't transfer well. 

When the white paint is dry, add brown for the trunk. Let all the paint dry completely, then fold the trees the opposite direction, so that the paint is facing out. Carefully cut around each tree. 

Cut the white cardstock into snowy hills. Ink the edges with pale grey ink, then glue them to the background paper. You can glue your trees directly to the background paper too, but I used foam tape to pop them up and add extra dimension. It's hard to tell in the scanned image, but it makes a big difference in person. Finally, decorate with snowflakes. Adding a "SYMME-TREES" title is optional. 

If I were making these in the classroom, I'd follow up with challenging the students to think of tree puns to work into a story or other piece of creative writing. I would love to cedar clever ideas... fir sure!

A Batch of Holiday Cards

Trevor and I made holiday cards during a workshop our friend Ann taught at our church. We'll be using these as our thank-you notes for gifts from friends and family. 

I loved the way Ann set up the workshop. There were four tables, each with a different set of materials for cardmaking. You could follow her examples or take each card in your own direction. She pre-cut the dies so that we had plenty of time to make the backgrounds, assemble everything, and embellish. I spent most of my time playing with ink, since that's something I don't really do. The alcohol inks were fun, but I particularly enjoyed using the water-reactive distress inks to make backgrounds. (Affiliate links here and below.)

I made all of these cards:    

I also made the snowflake card at the top right. Trevor made the other three cards. As you can see, each of Trevor's cards uses the same materials as one of my cards, but the direction we each took them is quite different. I love that. 

I don't pay too much attention to cardmaking products and techniques (I'm much better informed about the latest in scrapbooking), so it's really fun to play with all of Ann's supplies and learn from her expertise. I found a few items that will be making their way onto my wishlist, most notably this organizer. It's exactly what I need to free up a bit of desk space. I love how versatile it is!

Gingerbread Tags for Baked Goods

While I wouldn't blame you one bit if you kept an entire batch of gingerbread muffins for yourself, they do make really nice gifts. Bundle up a half-dozen and give them to friends and neighbors instead of (or in addition to!) a plate of cookies. The smiling gingerbread tag lets them know what's inside. 

To make your own, draw a gingerbread man on brown cardstock and then cut it out with microtip scissors. I actually cut the ears off the template I made for the torn paper bear and used that for my gingerbread man. Then I used a white colored pencil to draw the frosting onto the gingerbread man. I tested my various colored pencil sets to see which white was the most opaque and ended up using my Prismacolor Premier.  

I have another idea for using the same template that will let me test the opacity of more colors than just the white. Stay tuned! In the meantime, check out some...

Winter Mint Warm Milk

Last week, it was cold here (Bay Area cold, not Place-With-Actual-Winter cold). Now we're in the 70's, so it feels a little weird posting this now. But most of my readers have Actual Winter, so this for you. 

It's a toss-up as to whether hot chocolate or spiced cider is my favorite warm-me-up beverage, but I was in the mood for something different. This warm, sweet minty milk hit the spot. Affiliate links below. 

 

Winter Mint Warm Milk

Materials:

• sugar
• milk
• blue Candy Melts
• LorAnn wintergreen flavor
• snowflake mold

Steps:

Pour an inch of water into a bowl and an inch of sugar into a second bowl. Dip the rim of each glass into the water and then into the sugar. Set the glasses aside. 

Follow the directions to prepare the Candy Melts. Add several drops of wintergreen flavor, then spoon the candy into the molds. Do not fill the molds completely - you want thin snowflakes that will melt easily in warm milk. Allow the candy to set, then remove it from the mold. Repeat until you have 3-4 snowflakes per person. 

Gently heat the milk (use medium power in the microwave or a double-boiler on the stove), stirring frequently, just until it starts to steam. Pour the milk into the prepared glasses and serve with 3-4 snowflakes and a spoon. Each person can drop in their own snowflakes and stir to add the desired amount of mint flavor to the milk. 

Recycled Lid Snow Globe Ornament

I blog about kids' crafts, which means I'm contractually obligated to save all cardboard tubes, empty containers, and plastic lids. You never know when they'll come in handy. Such was the case for this cute snow globe ornament. The clear plastic lid I used was originally on a container of mixed nuts.

Now that humble lid has a place on our Christmas tree. Affiliate links below. 

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Recycled Lid Snow Globe Ornament

Materials:

• plastic lid
• a drawing on cardstock
• scissors
• Diamond Dust
• glittered felt
• black cord
• Supertite glue

Steps: 

Put the plastic lid onto a piece of cardstock, then carefully trace around the outside of the lid. Draw a picture on the cardstock circle. (I used pens for the snowman and the trees, and colored pencil for the sky.) Cut out the circle. 

Cut a piece of cord to match the circumference of the plastic lid. Cut Then cut a trapezoid out of felt for the base of the snow globe. 

Pour some Diamond Dust into the lid, then cover the rim with Supertite. Place the drawing upside down onto the rim and press all the way around the edges to make sure it is completely sealed. Let the glue dry before moving your ornament.

Glue the cord around the circumference of the rim, placing it right on the edge where the lid and the drawing meet. This will help ensure that the Diamond Dust cannot escape. Glue the felt base to the back of the drawing. Cut a short piece of cord and glue it behind the top of the ornament to use as a hanger. 

Give your ornament a shake to create a snowy scene, just like a normal snow globe. Enjoy!

Construction Paper Penguin Family Portrait

I was in the mood to do some penguin crafting, so I whipped up this family portrait. The tall one is Steve; Trevor and I are the same height now. 

This is a really easy project that hardly needs a tutorial. Start with a piece of blue cardstock, then layer a white rectangle on the bottom to make the snow. Use the white scraps to make three penguin bodies. Hold each penguin body against a scrap of black cardstock and trim just outside the white piece to make the outer portions of the bodies. Cut a pair of wings for each penguin. Use orange cardstock to cut triangular beaks and feet. Glue everything together, then add googly eyes. Easy and totally adorable!

  

Sledding Dog Handprint Craft

Have you seen the video of Secret, the dog who takes herself sledding? It's adorable. It was filmed in 2018 but is making the rounds again as we approach winter. If you haven't seen the video, go watch it now. 

Today's craft is inspired by Secret, although I chose to change her from her black-and-white self to brown. Her proportions are a little different as well, because I used my handprint to make her. Affiliate links below. 

Sledding Dog Handprint Craft

Materials: 

• construction paper or cardstock
• microtip scissors
• craft glue
• googly eye
• black pen

Steps: 

Trace your handprint onto brown cardstock. Carefully cut it out, then use the scraps to cut ears, a fluffy tail, and tree trunks. Glue the googly eye, the ears, and the tail to the handprint, then color the tip of the nose black. 

Cut two slopes from white cardstock, then cut the snow for the tops of the trees from the scraps. Cut out a blue sled and some green trees. Assemble the trees by gluing the trunks and the snowy tops to the trees. 

Glue the slopes to the background paper. Glue the dog in place, then glue the sled over the fingertips so it looks like the dog is standing in the sled. Finally, glue the trees in place.

Crayon Resist Winter Hat Craft

We've been having gorgeous weather here in northern California, with clear blue skies and temperatures in the 70's. The trees have blossomed and the bulbs are up. Despite the way it's been around here, we technically have another month before spring actually starts. Which means it isn't weird for me to share a winter hat craft, right? I had the crayons out for a different project and decided it was time to do another resist project. I love the 'magic' of painting on a seemingly blank surface and having a pattern appear. Affiliate links below. 

Crayon Resist Winter Hat Craft

Materials:

• watercolor paper
• scissors
• white crayon (you can buy whole packs of white if you're doing this with a group)
• Folk Art acrylic paint
• paintbrush
• cotton ball
• Supertite glue

Steps:

Use the scissors to cut the watercolor paper into a hat shape. With the white crayon, decorate the hat as desired. I made narrow vertical stripes on the band and an alternating pattern of cross-hatches and dots on the top of the hat. You won't be able to see what you've drawn very easily, which is part of the fun. 

Water down acrylic paint until it is thin like ink. Use vertical strokes to brush it on the hat, revealing the design. 

When the paint has dried completely, glue the cotton ball to the top of the hat. 

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I often end up down the proverbial rabbit hole when I'm getting Amazon links for posts. I find all sorts of fun things. This time, I searched for "fun winter hat" and got some beauts. I'd totally wear this cute cupcake hat. And I like this non-traditional Santa hat, though I don't think I'd have many occasions to wear it. This Dracula hat is awesome, but it seems more fall than winter to me. This octopus hat seems toasty warm, particularly if you're considering some wintertime bank robbing, which I am not.

Pillow Party 2019

I love a creative challenge, so when I was invited to join up with 24 other craft bloggers for a Holiday Pillow Party, I jumped right in! Each of us received pillows and other goodies from Fairfield World with the instructions to decorate our pillows for the holidays. I love seeing what everyone made! Based on what you know about me, can you pick out mine?

If you guessed that I made the snowmen family portrait, you're right! Follow the steps to make your own. Affiliate links (and a big giveaway!) below. 

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Snowmen Family Portrait Pillow

Materials: 

• Fairfield Poly-Fil 20" Pillow 
• Apple Barrel paint - Cloudless
• felt - white and black
• Beacon FabriTac
• Stickles - black, orange, brown, blue, green, red, pink
• leftover Diamond Dotz by Leisure Arts (color 5001)
• tacky glue

Steps: 

Remove the Poly-Fil from the pillow and put it temporarily into the bag the pillow came in.

In a shallow disposable tray, mix paint with 1 cup of water. You want a completely liquid consistency, but not so diluted that it won't color the pillow. Dip the top half of the pillow into the paint. After the paint has soaked in, spread the pillow case flat to let it dry. (I did this on the lawn so I wouldn't make a mess indoors.)

Meanwhile, cut out snowmen to represent each member of the family. Use black Stickles for eyes, mouths, and buttons; orange Stickles for carrot noses, and pink Stickles for bunny ears. I also added our family colors to the snowmen's hats. 

When the pillow and the Stickles were dry, I used the Beacon glue to attach the felt to the pillow. Then I used the brown Stickles to add arms.

While the arms were drying, I added my leftover Dotz to the sky to make snowflakes. They're hard to see in the picture, but they add so much sparkle in real life! 

Finally, I re-stuffed the pillow.  

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I had so much fun making my pillow, but it was even more fun to check out all the other designers' pillows. There's so much talent out there! Each pillow is so different from the others.

If you'd like to make your own pillow (or anything else crafty), I have good news for you! You can enter this Rafflecopter giveaway for a chance to be the lucky one to win a $100 gift card to Michaels and 10 pounds of Poly-Fil. Good luck, everyone!

Oreo Penguins

When our plans to make an Oreo Christmas tree were thwarted, we made Oreo Penguins instead. 

As you can see, they're adorable but far from perfect. A friend once told me that what she loves the most about my blog is that you don't have to have any talent to make the things I share. She immediately blushed and apologized profusely for implying I don't have any talent, but I thought it was hilarious. It's totally true that my projects are not likely to grace the pages of a magazine (except this once!). My projects are doable and rarely require any special skills or expertise. I consider my talent to be thinking up the ideas, figuring out how they're done, and writing clear instructions, rather than the actual execution of the project. Particularly when it comes to edible crafts! So regardless of whether you have any talent or not, go ahead and give these Oreo Penguins a try! Affiliate links below. 

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Oreo Penguins 

Materials:

• White Fudge Oreos
• aluminum foil
• black Candy Melts
• white Candy Melts
• toothpick
• candy eyeballs
• candy-covered sunflower seeds
• cooling rack
• Silpat mat

Steps:

Set the Silpat mat on the table with the cooling rack directly above it. Place 4 White Fudge Oreos on the rack, with enough space between them that you can fit your fingers. Use scissors to cut 4 small squares of aluminum foil. Put them on top of one another and fold them in half vertically. Cut the stack of squares into a half teardrop so that they're vaguely heart-shaped when you unfold them. Separate them and press them onto the Oreos, with the end press down the front. In the photo below, you can see three Oreos with the foil positioned on them, plus one piece of foil that I haven't unfolded yet. 

From another angle, with the fourth Oreo now covered:

Melt about 15 black Candy Melts according to the package directions. Drizzle the melted candy over the tops, trying as best you can to avoid the foil-covered area. 

Let the candy set for just a minute or so, then use the tab of foil at the bottom to lift the foil straight up. If you wait too long, you end up with a rough edge instead of a nice smooth line between white and black. If don't wait long enough, you have to be really careful that the extra candy on the foil doesn't slop onto the white portion. How long it takes the candy to set up depends on your room temperature and humidity, so I can't give you a more accurate guess. 

Transfer the penguins to a plate. If you drizzled aggressively, you may end up with a few penguins that are stuck to the cooling rack. Push up from the bottom of the rack with one hand as you're gently pulling up with the other and it should pop free. If you happen to break one doing this, you have my permission to eat it. None of mine broke, so unfortunately I didn't get to eat one. 

Move the now-empty cooling rack, then peel the dripped candy off the Silpat and put it back into the bowl. Remelt the candy. Set up your next four Oreos and repeat the process of adding the foil, drizzling the candy, and then peeling the foil. 

Continue working, four at a time, until all your Oreos are covered. You may need to add more Candy Melts to the bowl. 

In a separate bowl, melt 3 white wafers. Use a toothpick to dot melted white candy onto the backs of the candy eyeballs, then place them on the penguins. They'll set very quickly, so make sure you put them where you want them and don't try to move them. Add a dab of white candy below the eyes and place a sunflower seed beak there. 

Here are some of the penguins I made. As you can see, they are FAR from perfect.

But they are fun! I learned a lot as I went - what consistency is best for the melted candy, where to position the foil and when to remove it, what happens if you try to dip the penguin in the candy melts instead of drizzling, etc. I figured out what to do as I went. Like anything, the more Oreo Penguins I made, the better they turned out. And for a Scout cookie exchange, these imperfect (yet charming) penguins were perfectly fine.  

And I did eventually get to eat one. Delicious!